Omoyele Sowore, a renowned human rights activist and publisher of Sahara Reporters, on Friday announced his intention to depart Nigeria to the United States to reunite with his family members.
Mr Sowore announced on Friday, after four years of being incarcerated in Nigeria by the immediate past administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari.
“Later today, I will be returning to the U.S. after almost five years of my unlawful, unjust and inhumane detention by the corrupt Nigerian political system since August 2019.
I was arrested, assaulted, tortured and detained for demanding that Nigerians deserve a nation that they can truly call their own. I was charged with treason – and after five years, the APC government was forced to withdraw its trumped-up charges against me,” he said in a post on his social media.
Mr Sowore, a presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC) in the 2023 general election, was arrested on August 3, 2019, and later detained over his planned #RevolutionNow protest. He was later charged with treasonable felony by Mr Buhari’s government.
The human rights activist said that despite his ordeal in the hands of the Nigerian government, he would not back out in ensuring an egalitarian society.
”If the government thought that keeping me detained and later restricting my movement would break my spirit and cause me to renounce my commitment to fighting for the downtrodden Nigerian people, they are mistaken,” said Mr Sowore.
He recalled how he was barred from seeing his family, how gunmen killed his brother and how his mother’s health deteriorated due to assaults from the Buhari regime.
”I stand today to declare that I am unbowed. My commitment to Nigeria is unshakable. My resolve to continue to fight for the betterment of the Nigerian nation and to demand accountability from her leaders will never be compromised,” he said.
While identifying corruption and rising inflation as Nigeria’s problems, the activist said he was still committed to the agitation of ensuring Nigeria regains her lost glory.
”For those who wonder what my next steps will be – I say this: I believe now, as I did over 30 years ago when I began this journey, that the vision of creating a just and egalitarian society must be established during my lifetime,” he added.
Mr Sowore said his trip to reunite with his children and wife was only for a short while, stressing that he would return to the country to continue his struggle for the total liberation of the people from the shackles of the current corrupt, self-serving political class.
“I will also be returning to face headlong the remaining truckload of bogus criminal and civil cases that have been thrown at me since my detention in 2019,” he stated.
Recently, President Bola Tinubu’s government withdrew the suit against Mr Sowore. The court, while striking out the suit against him, asked the security agencies to release his seized international passport.